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Bomb-detection units coming to New York City’s Penn Station

NEW YORK — Suicide vest-detection technology is coming to New York City's Penn Station.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer says Monday that the federal Transportation Security Administration will start testing the screening equipment on Tuesday.

“At long last and at not a moment too soon, the TSA has agreed to bring this new, potentially life-saving technology to New York City and Penn Station for testing, and so we thank the TSA for heeding the call,” Schumer said. “When I made the push to bring this technology to New York City it was because we need to put it on the fast-track and we need to perfect it, because if it works, this is where we want it: in New York City’s busiest transit hubs."

Schumer pushed for the technology to be tested in New York City after a Bangladeshi immigrant injured himself setting off a crude pipe bomb strapped to his chest in December.

The TSA has been working on the devices known as stand-off explosive detection units since 2004 with transit agencies like Amtrak and New Jersey Transit.